Instagram: Norubrum

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1/100 days of productivity

song of the day: vienna- billy joel

had three very tiring but very productive meetings today!

the fire alarm went off during my physics lecture so i had to stand outside for 30 minutes. also met with an upper year bioengineering student and now i'm very interested in applying for a transfer.

research: met with a bioengineering/biomedical engineering professor and i can happily say that i now work in a bioengineering lab. also met with my research team for the first time since the break.

academic: finished my chemistry lab report and did some calculus problems. worked on some notes.

self care: got a bit of exercise (walking) in today! unfortunately i wore my doc martens for too long yesterday so it was a little painful.

above: icicles hanging off our museum, snowflake that landed on my sleeve

"My work, which I’ve done for a long time, was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more than most other men” - Leeuwenhoek, 1716

Winter is cold for those who do not have warm memories

One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.

(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)

This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”

Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”

It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)

“If I’ve learned one lesson from all that’s happened to me, it’s that there’s no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

— Sophie Kinsella

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18/100 days of productivity

song of the day: cry for me- the weeknd

spent 11 hours studying for chemistry today. finished all of my practice problems. going to office hours tomorrow and doing the practice midterms and I should be all set. also did two sets of calculus notes and some calculus problems. went to an amazing conference on sustainability and the keynote speech was very inspiring. I wish that I had more chances to interact with things like this as a stem major. ft. my campus squirrels

intro.

welcome to my little blog. here I document my daily life and anything interesting. reason? because i am lonely and need motivation.

about me:

vin (he/him). born in 2007.

first year, BSc in anatomy & cell biology. minor in biomedical engineering.

pre med, studying to become a cardiac surgeon.

academic interests: nanotechnology, medical technology, synthetic biology, biomedical engineering, tissue engineering, biomaterials

hobbies: writing, badminton, oil painting, gaming (wanted hobbies: motorcycling, cello, archery, fencing)

languages: english, mandarin chinese, A2/B1 french. want to learn italian and spanish.

goals: become someone i will never regret, give my parents a comfortable life, make a personal impact in someone's life.

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song of the day: where are you- 54 ultra

mostly ran errands today which took much longer than anticipated. i had to push the majority of my tasks to tomorrow. despite that my mood was great which is a win in my books. i bought a new planner for 2025 and it has already proven to be useful.

research: assigned tasks to my team. (we are a little behind schedule for our publication). sent out a few emails to the journal.

selfcare: on the last bit of a horror game i've been wanting to play for a while. i might finish it tomorrow. also did a bit of drawing but i don't expect to have much time for that as the new semester is starting.

tomorrow: buying a new notebook. after that i can get started with preparing for the new semester. key goals: make topic list, mind map, set up notes. i'm quite excited to decorate the pages with all the new stickers i got. i also plan to finish my blog article (which is due in a week).

back to my cage

The beauty of having the earthy feel when you study.

@briechyne on Instagram